Erik Prince's Vectus Global Joins Congo's Fight Against M23 as Minerals Race Intensifies

On September 17, in the highlands of South Kivu, more than 2,000 km east of the capital Kinshasa, an ambush left about 20 people dead or wounded. According to Reuters, citing sources working with the Congolese government, the victims included Congolese personnel and foreign contractors serving a private American security firm, Vectus Global. At least seven of the dead were Congolese nationals. Another was a former member of New Zealand's Special Air Service.

Among the wounded was Tim Kennedy, a former US Green Beret and Ultimate Fighting Championship fighter, along with one other foreign contractor. The New York Times separately reported his evacuation after he was shot several times in intense fighting. The episode has prompted questions about the relationship between Congo's government and the foreign firm it hired.

Vectus Global is run by Erik Prince, who founded Blackwater, the company that became notorious after its personnel killed Iraqi civilians in Baghdad in 2007. Prince is also a prominent supporter of President Donald Trump, who in 2020 pardoned some former Blackwater employees involved in that incident. In Congo, Vectus has a wide remit: securing mining operations, collecting government revenue, and supporting military operations against M23, the Rwanda-backed rebel movement that has seized territory across the mineral-rich eastern provinces.

Prince signed his contract with President Felix Tshisekedi's government in late 2024. A former US official who worked on regional diplomacy told the New York Times it was worth hundreds of millions of dollars over five years, though it is unclear how much has been paid. Vectus supplied drones and mercenaries and became involved in taxation and revenue collection. Reuters reported that in January and early February its forces deployed to Uvira, near the Rwanda border, after Washington helped broker an arrangement for Rwanda-backed rebels to withdraw from the town. The size of the deployment, the full terms of its authority, and how duties are divided with Congo's army remain unclear. The company did not respond to NDTV's request for comment.

The backdrop is a long struggle over who profits from Congo's ground. The country holds vast deposits of copper, cobalt and tantalum-bearing minerals, and the east has seen decades of corruption, foreign intervention and armed conflict. UN experts say the Rubaya coltan deposits bring M23 around $800,000 a month through a $7-per-kilogram tax on production and trade.

Walter Dorn of the Royal Military College of Canada told NDTV that in eastern Congo "being rich makes you poor," and that Rwanda in particular has used violence to control the region and expand access to minerals. Philippe Le Billon of the University of British Columbia cautioned that Congo is less wealthy than often reported, at least next to major oil exporters. It dominates one market, cobalt, but has struggled to capture revenue because of foreign interference, corruption and misgovernance. He called the resource curse well documented there.

He also noted a distinction: cobalt, copper and tantalum are critical minerals, not rare earths, which are a specific group of 17 elements. Dorn said Washington is pursuing two goals at once, securing Congo's minerals and weakening China's grip on mining there, which he put at about 70 per cent. He said China has a major head start, though roads and infrastructure it built could also serve US interests.

In December 2025, according to the New York Times, the US and Congo signed an agreement to improve American access to Congo's mining sector. Congolese officials privately called it a "peace for minerals" deal. Dorn argued that the peace arrangement was weak and did not hold. What to watch is whether the contract terms, payments and Vectus's actual role become clear, and whether security and mineral access stay entangled.